Gardening and Greenhouse

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Depending on where you live in Northwestern Ontario, I believe your last expected spring frost date is “officially” May 24. But I lived in that area for 15 years and saw frost as late as mid June. It also depends on what you want to plant. Your local garden center will have plants ready to put into the ground before the last frost, so be careful that you don’t plant them too early.

In my experience, spinach and radishes are good early crops to start with.

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I live in central Ohio also. Go to Oakland Nursery either in Dublin or in Delaware and talk to someone who works there. They have a huge variety of plants, on sale last I saw. The employees are very knowledgable and will be able to help you.

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You can get shaker boxes of wild flowers or seed rolls.
Pull the weeds or grass, loosen the dirt, add some compost or good potting soil with a plant food in it and plant your seeds, cover slightly, water gently for the next several days.

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There are lots of ways but unfortunately they are all illegal, feline human rights!!!!!!!

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Put down a good layer (3-4 inches) of mulch. We like to use grass clippings. Depending on how far apart things are in your flower garden, you can also use a good layer of newspapers under the grass clippings. This will usually keep almost anything down. The grass clippings will not add any weeds to the garden and after a few days dry to a light green to brown color. The other benefit is that the clippings will add nitrogen and organic matter to your soil.

Visit our website for more gardening ideas at-

http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/

Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!

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Get down and get Dirty Girl. Start close to your house and Water Faucet. Just start small and add on over the years as you know more and what you want. A small flower bed you can take a hand shovel when the ground is wet, maybe a day or two after it rains. Dig down about an inch to scrap off the Grass then dig a hole for your flowers about 2X the size of the pot they in, Wet the plant in the pot real well. Pull from pot and take a Sharpe knife or I just use my fingers and rip down the outer roots to get them unwound some, 2-3 sides. Then have some good potting soil or Miracle Grow Potting mix and plant in your hole like you re-potting it mounding it about 1 inch above the ground. Then when everything planted, get a HARDWOOD Mulch and mulch about 3 inches thick around everything going a little thinner at the plant base. Then wet down real well and you are done. Water lightly in Dry times about every 3-4 days. The Mulch helps retain Moisture. DO NOT use those big Pine Nuggets they just float away in a heavy rain, use a Mulch that looks Shredded, it tangles together and holds its place. The Mulch Thick enough to keep the grass and weeds out, add about 1 inch every spring to compensate for what rots. WHEN you mow, Blow the grass cuttings away from your flowers or you just re-seed grass. Any unwanted growth will easily pull up throw in the yard and sun do it’s thing. Good Luck!

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I went thru the same thing when I moved to my current house. The area had become a haven for ants and earwigs. I used an old window screen, and with a hand shovel, threw the dirt and rocks on to the screen, sifted the dirt out and the rocks were poured into a large bucket. This way I didn’t lose all the dirt. It took a few days to get it cleared out, but every year since then (over 10 years ago), I still find more rocks deeper down. Now when I’m planting the garden, I use a large spaghetti strainer as I dig.